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SURFACE

The many succesfull exhibitions about street art in 2016, show that both Amsterdam and the audience seems to accept the art movement more and more. With the exhibition SURFACE, by the photographer Søren Solkær, art gallery Vroom &Varossieau has booked a huge success.

About the gallery: Vroom &Varossieau

Vroom &Varossieau is specialised in street art and urban contemporary art by internationally celebrated artists, as well as emerging talent. The gallery also arranges licenses and commissions for murals, for artists. Vroom &Varossieau advises private collectors in buying and selling works of art (private sales).

Olivier Varossieau, co-owner of art gallery Vroom &Varossieau explains: “we have seen that street art has really grown up as an art movement. At the moment, street art is an enormous and worldwide phenomenon, which can not be denied by museums and the art galleries.”

About the photographer: Søren Solkær

Søren Solkær is a Danish photographer, born in 1969. He is best known for his portraits of musicians, beeing responsible for various iconic images of Björk, The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, The Arctic Monkeys, R.E.M. and U2.

Søren’s photography is characterised by finding a tension point between intimacy and edginess. His portraits are often regarded as cinematic in tone with a distinctive colour palette. The inspirations for his style as a photographer is ranging from filmmakers David Lynch and Wong Kar-Wai through to the works of photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia and painter Caspar David Friedrich.

About the exhibition: ‘SURFACE’

With a recently reignited interest in hip-hop culture and street art, Solkær decided to try something different: to step into a landscape he felt was still unaffected by the extra baggage that comes with fame.

“In 2012 I set out to do a large scale portrait project about individuals who create art in the public space.I felt that this was the perfect time to portray the people behind one of the most powerful and prevalent art movements of our time. This took me on an incredible journey to roof tops, back alleys, train stations, studios and walls across the world.” -Søren Solkær-

It is very uncommon for street artists to show their faces on a photograph. Some of the artists are hiding behind a mask or props to obscure their identity. ‘SURFACE’ has been created in Søren’s signature style drawing influence from cinema and painting. His use of artificial lighting on location and a strong element of storytelling, creates images with an atmosphere of hyperrealism – a sort of imaginary film stills.

“There’s no real industry around [street art] and also there hasn’t been much of a big tradition for photographing street artists. I feel like I really hit this art form at the right time where it’s still big, it’s very important but it’s still touching and it has some of its innocence. I think that’s going to change in the future.” -Søren Solkær-

New Projects

Olivier promised me that 2017 will even be a better street art year in Amsterdam than 2016. The SURFACE exhibition will come back next year in another setting. Furthermore a lot of projects will be finished, including a street art bar at Rembrandtsquare.

SURFACE runs till October 30th at Vroom &Varossieau. The photographer will have a Finissage on October 26th.